


Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?

by AteanaLenn



Series: Steter(ish) shorts [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bad Friend Scott, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Steter Week, Steter Week 2018, mention of stalkering behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 04:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15429477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AteanaLenn/pseuds/AteanaLenn
Summary: “Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?”Stiles sighed. “Peter, please…”“Do you have the slightest fucking idea of what using ritual magic, ritual death magic, does to a werewolf?!”Written forSteter Week 2018(Magical Stiles OR Mating Bite)and thesarcasm prompt: “Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?”





	Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?

**Author's Note:**

> I had to make this fic longer because it was supposed to be centered around Steter but the beginning turned into 'let's make Scott look bad' instead, lol I didn't even mean to at first, for once. 
> 
> Second fill for [Steter Week 2018](https://steterweek.tumblr.com/post/174835604073/steter-week-2018-themes)! A bit late, because I kept forgetting to post the thing *facepalm*. I'm not used to having chapters waiting around for a due date ^^;;; 
> 
> -

“Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?” 

Stiles sighed. “Peter, please…”

“Do you have the slightest fucking idea of what using ritual magic, ritual  _ death magic _ , does to a werewolf?!” 

“You did it already! You came back from the dead!”

“When I was still so fucking crazy from the broken pack bonds that it seemed like a good idea to heal my scars with no explanation available for the humans!”

“The ritual magic was  _ after _ that,” Scott insisted, frowning and trying to make himself loom with his arms crossed.

Spoiler: it didn’t work. 

Stiles stared at his ‘best friend’, then rolled his eyes. Peter might have been slightly shorter than Scott, but no amount of growling or posturing would help Scott  _ loom _ over  _ Peter Hale _ .

“Look, Scott,” Stiles tried again. “He told you no, several times already. Let it go. We do have other options.”

“Deaton said you’d have to use your magic,” Scott retorts, almost sneering but not quite. “We both know that you suck at using magic. This would make things so much easier, Peter is just being a drama queen.”

“He’s really not, Scott.” Derek shouldered his way in the room, not quite standing between the two groups. “My mother did repeat, many times, that we should not, absolutely not use magic or rituals. It pulls on a werewolf’s inner magic, strengthens it. It’s a fast track to  _ losing control and growing feral _ . Deaton told you, I told you, hell,  _ Stiles _ told you. How many times do we need to tell you ‘ _ no _ ’?”

The room fell silent following Derek’s tirade, everyone staring at the usually quiet man. The grandfather clock tick-tock of the app that Stiles used on his laptop to help him concentrate suddenly filled the room, seeming ten times louder as everyone held their breath, waiting for the explosion. 

With the shock of Scott’s Alpha power going on the fritz more and more often and the realization that once most of the danger had passed, the Hale Alpha spark wasn’t so keen on staying with Scott anymore, Scott had turned bitter.

“I don’t want Stiles to use his magic,” Scott repeated, once again. He’d been saying this again and again, almost twice a day for the last month, since they’d found out that they’d probably need Stiles’ magical link to the land, to contact the animals and creatures.

“Holy shit, Scott,  _ what the hell _ ?!” Stiles finally exploded. “Why are you insisting that we use  _ fucking ritual magic _ to get into contact with a few squirrels and maybe a kelpie or two. Do I need to explain to you the meaning of  _ overkill _ ??”

“It can be done!” Scott spread his hands, looking earnest and hopeful. 

“It is impractical! It’s redundant, it’s  _ superfluous _ . Was that clear enough? My magic will do just as well, as soon as I learn how to manipulate it!”

“It’s unnatural!”

Gérard Argent could have crossed the room, dancing the macarena, and the wolves and associated friends wouldn’t have look anymore uncomfortable.

Stiles stepped back, bumping into Peter. The man caught his arms and didn’t let go afterward.

“I- What?”

It seemed like the dam had finally broken. Scott started pacing, half ranting within a couple of sentences. “You’re  _ human _ ! I have to deal with this werewolf  _ shit _ because Peter bit me, but I’ll find a way to change back, I’m sure, Deaton said he’d look into it. But you, you don’t  _ have to _ do this! You don’t have to become… something else, tainted. You  _ can _ stay human, Peter will do well enough.”

“Scott…” 

Stiles almost looked like he’d lost his words. He glanced left and right, like it was going to help him find a way to explain. Most of the wolves were looking down, clearly avoiding the conversation; when they weren’t glaring at Scott with heated eyes and sneering mouths.

“Scott,” Stiles repeated. “You can’t. There’s  _ no way _ , you know it.”

“No! There is a way! Derek stole it from me when he killed Peter before I could, but there mu _ st _ have another way.”

“I lied.”

“You- What?”

“I lied,” Derek said again. “I needed help to deal with Peter while he was batshit insane from the coma and doped on Alpha power. It’s an old wives’ tale. It’s something that hunters sometimes tell to the new guys they indoctrinate in their hunting parties, to make them believe they can be ‘saved’, if they get bitten during an attack. You can’t ‘remove’ the werewolf. He’s part of you, he’s been born inside of you and has grown with you and now  _ you _ are a werewolf. You’re not a human with a wolf, you’re a  _ werewolf _ . It would be like deciding that you’re going to take away a part of your DNA. It’s impossible.”

“No! No, it’s not. It’s not…”

“Even Deaton said it wasn’t possible, Scott.”

“He said he’d keep looking!”

“Because you pushed and hounded him! He said that to get you off his back. There is  _ no _ ‘cure’. It’s not a sickness!”

“It is! It’s disgusting and unnatural and you made me something that I didn’t want to be! Because of this, Allison doesn’t want me anymore. I hate it! I hate it!”

“Dude, Allison didn’t leave you because you’re a werewolf. She left because you were stalking her, standing under her window at night and following her around town, and spamming her with text messages when she started getting wary and said she wanted a break. You tried to tell her that she couldn’t be friends with some people!”

“It was Jackson! No one needs to be friend with him, he’s an ass, and he kept coming onto her!”

“And she told him no, and he wouldn’t have gone further. He did it because he could see that you were so jealous that you turned nasty! Hell, Scott, Jackson came to  _ talk to me about it _ because he was fucking  _ worried _ that you were turning so possessive over Allison, and he thought that you might  _ hurt her _ if you got angry!”

“I would have never! It’s that thing’s doing! It’s all the wolf’s fault!”

Derek sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, shoulders sagging. “For god’s sake, Scott… The wolf doesn’t  _ make you do _ anything. Yes, your Alpha can influence you to do what  _ he or she _ wants, not what  _ their wolf _ wants, but  _ you  _ are the Alpha. Your wolf doesn’t push you to do anything. He just makes it easier to do what  _ you _ want to do. And apparently, you wanted to get into Allison’s room and steal some clothes. If you don’t have the other person’s approval, Scott, that’s call taking  _ trophies _ . You were stalking her and you were using your wolf’s strength to hurt the people around her who got too close for your taste. That’s not your wolf, that’s all on you.”

“This is bullshit!” Scott screamed, eyes flaring bright red. “I’m not like that, it wasn’t like that, I’m a nice guy! I would never have hurt her.”

“Physically,  _ maybe _ not. But she was fucking scared of you, of angering you.” Stiles leaned against Peter, looking done in. It wasn’t the first time that they had a variation of this discussion, but this time it felt final. Maybe because there were people around to see Scott’s reaction. “She’s terrified of you because you’ve proven that given a little strength, you would impose your will over people with no regard for their thoughts or decisions.”

“You can’t say that!”

“I really fucking can. God, Scott, I never thought I’d say this, but you disgust me.”

Scott looked away from the tears sliding down Stiles’ face. “It’s the werewolf thing’s fault,” he repeated feebly.

“No. It’s your fault for showing that you can’t be trusted. If you can’t be trusted with a magical boost, you can’t be trusted as a human either. Your personality didn’t change, you only got stronger and able to act on what you wanted. That’s on you and that’ll always be on you, and it’s what makes it that you can’t be trusted. Shit, that’s probably why the Alpha spark is trying to fuck right off of you.”

“It’s mine!”

“It’s not!” Peter finally roared, the sound resonating through his ribcage and against Stiles’ back. “It’s the spirit of the Hale magical line. It’s a blessing from the earth and the magic of the land, to legitimize our claim to these lands and bind our people to one another and to this place. But you never listened, did you?” 

Peter sounded just as defeated right then. They’d all tried to help Scott, to help him get used to his new power and responsibility, to teach him. Peter more than any other, because he felt responsible for what he’d done when he was out of his mind. But Scott simply didn’t want to listen.   

/

They were at an impasse, once again, and this time, Stiles just gave up. He looked at the man who used to be his best friend, wondering if circumstances had changed Scott so much, or if the potential to be such an asshole had always been here, buried under the asthma and high school nerd status.

“I’m going to do it,” he whispered and the shoulders of the born-wolves just sagged at the idea. None of them contradicted him though, none tried to intervene. 

“Do what?” Scott asked, frowning.

“I can’t make you human again. No one can. But the Alpha power is going to leave you soon, there’s no way around it. I’ve seen it, Deaton has seen it, everyone with the slightest connection to magic can feel how conflicted the power is and how it’s straining to get away from you. You’ll be left an Omega because no one here would trust you at their back. You’ve burned all those bridges,” Stiles explained, spreading his hands and shrugging his shoulders in surrender. “You’re going to be a danger to all of us.”

“So what, what are you going to do, kill me?!”

“No, but I’m going to lock away part of what makes you so dangerous.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m going to bind your inner magic, Scott! I’m going to lock away your werewolf powers!”

“You said that you couldn’t make me human again! You  _ lied _ to me!” 

Scott looked half a second away from launching himself across the room, straight at Stiles’ throat. 

Peter stepped forward, half hiding the other man. Derek was still on Stiles’ other side. The wolves bracketed their friend, just in case.

“I didn’t lie to you, you idiot, goddammit,  _ why don’t you want to understand _ , why do you never listen!” Stiles screamed right back. “This is not a cure, you moron,  _ it’s a motherfucking curse _ .”

He stood in silence for a moment, panting from the anger and the stress.

“It’s a curse,” he repeated slowly. “It’ll lock away your access to your super strength and you extra senses, make you almost baseline human, true. But everyone in the supernatural community will know as soon as they meet you what happened, and they’ll know that you’re a werewolf turned omega, too dangerous to be let free among the population. And you… You’ll know what’s supposed to be there. You’ll feel the missing piece, that part of your body that’s here but not here. The phantom limb almost but not quite in reach. It’s a damn  _ curse _ , but you won’t care, will you? You haven’t listened to a word I said, past the ‘baseline human’, did you?”

“I’ll be normal again!”

“Oh god,  _ Scott _ …”

Stiles hid his head in his hands and gave up. He let Peter pull him back and away, let the other wolves form a wall between him and his old friend, keeping them separated and Stiles safe. 

He just got to listen to Scott howl as he was subdued by the others, put in chains until Stiles could go visit Deaton for the stuff needed for the curse. 

Everything was almost ready, because Stiles had been looking into this, he’d seen it coming, and they’d done research via many sources. They’d put the idea on the back burner, because it’d never seemed completely necessary, they could deal with it, they could  _ try _ ... Until Deaton had called Derek, Peter, and Stiles one day, and quietly explained that Scott was growing out of control. The man had been surprised that Stiles was already aware and almost ready to step in. 

Peter kept his arm around Stiles’ shoulders as they made their way out of the building that Derek had bought and renovated to make homes for the wolves. He stirred Stiles away from the Jeep and pushed him into the passenger seat of his own car.

The silence of the luxury car was a balm on their frayed senses. They sat together a moment, Stiles face buried into Peter’s shoulder, just relaxing. Then Peter turned the car on and-

Roared, so long and so loud, Stiles screamed at his side, suddenly terrified.

Peter was hunched over the wheel, hands stiff around the leather, his elongated nails piercing through it like butter. He was panting and almost whispering under his breath.

When he looked at Stiles, his bright red eyes lit up the small space in an eerie light. 

-

**Author's Note:**

> The eeeend. This might be a bit evil, but I liked stopping it here xD Sorry not sorry ;)  
> ♥


End file.
